BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- An extraordinary communist party congress adjourned after only three hours Saturday after regional branches from half of Yugoslavia's republics refused to send delegates.
The plenary meeting was a continuation of the 14th Special Congress that was disrupted Jan. 23 when the Slovenian delegation walked out in a dispute over the pace of reforms.
The communist parties of three of Yugoslavia's republics, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia, refused to send delegations to Saturday's meeting. The communists lost power in Slovenia and Croatia in multiparty elections earlier this spring.
Delegates from Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Hercegovina set a Sept. 29 date for the next congress and then adjourned after only three hours, radio reports and the official news agency Tanjug said.
At the January meeting, the communist delegates voted to abolish the party's 45-year monopoly on power but differed sharply over proposals for deeper political and economic reforms and greater autonomy for the individual republics.
The meeting came a day after Prime Minister Ante Markovic, a leading advocate of reform, announced plans to form a separate party to compete in general elections expected later this year.
